Jet ski accident caused a woman’s genitals to fill with blood

A 25-year-old woman needed surgery after a jet ski accident that resulted in serious injury to her genitals. While jet skiing, the woman flew off the vehicle and into the air, and when she landed, her genitals hit the jet ski’s handlebars.

Three days later, she could barely walk and was in extreme pain. She went to the emergency room, where doctors found she had a vulvar hematoma, according to a report in British Medical Journal Case Reports. Vaginal hematomas usually happen when the area goes through physical trauma. They cause the skin to swell and tissue to bulge as blood fills the soft tissue inside the vagina.

Small vaginal hematomas often won’t cause symptoms, but a large injury like what the woman dealt with can cause pain while walking or urinating.

Prior to surgery, doctors told the woman to use ice packs and pain medication to treat her injury. But the hematoma only grew larger and eventually was four inches long, according to doctors involved in the case study.

They decided surgery was the best approach to properly drain the blood from her vulvar tissue and relieve pain, so they created an incision inside her left vaginal wall to remove the hematoma and then used stitches to repair the area.

Following surgery, the woman was given antibiotics. She told doctors she immediately felt relief from the pain after the procedure. After 10 weeks post-surgery, the incision inside her vagina was completely healed and she was able to have normal sex without any pain, the report said.

Typically, vaginal hematomas happen when someone is giving birth and the pressure from pushing or surgical instruments injures the area. If a woman gets an episiotomy before giving birth, that can also cause a vaginal hematoma.

Vaginal hematomas can also happen if the area is exposed to physical force during high-impact sports, accidental falls, or intense penetrative sex.